I thought the staging worked well as, according to an audience member, "the divide was good because it clearly displayed the apathy of the media, showing how it takes a lot to get the truth noticed and representing what society has become". I agree with this believing that it aided the audiences understanding showing a physical divide as well as the behavioural divide between the conflicting characters which may not have been so clear with just our different movements. I believe this because both groups found it difficult maintaining high energy throughout meaning that it was had to distinguish between the two as they were no longer working at level 7s for their objectives (A&B's being to look disinterested, whereas C&D's was to get attention).
However as C&Ds were trying to get the others attention and the divide was down the middle of the stage, the majority of the piece was directed towards the other actors instead of the audience. As there was a lot of them it also meant that they blocked off some of the audiences view and due to their hectic actions some of the dialogue was lost and acting missed. Next time I would create a large gap between the two groups and make sure that only a few performers can move in front of the white board as this too was sometimes blocked from sight. A larger gap would help the C&Ds to spread out more too, because I felt that most of the time they were using the front of the box.
In rehearsals we noticed that when it was A&Bs cue to leave, far too many people went to leave as though keen to get off stage, which looked bad because there was still a lot of C-D dialogue left. With too many people leaving the scene then became dull and the audience would've lost attention so in the actual performance I thought that it looked with a more staggered exit because it really helped to build up the others desperation, enforcing our message that there is a need to express the topics that the media avoids.
I thought that I did well at trying to project and speak with clarity because in this piece I felt as though every word needs to be heard, as, in my opinion, this is the most important way the play portrays its message about the apathy of today's media. I tried to vary my tone of voice as well because although being an A meant I had to sound bored/lazy/uninterested I couldn't let my voice become these things and cause the audience to disengage. This meant that by changing the tone of my voice I could still make it sound as though I was bored but it was still interesting for the audience.
On the other hand I did struggle to come up with different actions to occupy myself with as I instantly found myself reverting to naturalistic tendencies. I found it difficult to find an array of exaggerated movements that wouldn't be over used and then becoming boring for the audience so if I performed it again I think I might pre-plan more movements and this might also help me to make them more over the top, enforcing the idea that these characters cannot be relatable, merely just pawns in the story.
Devising our piece we'd made sure to include different Brechtian ideas. We began by looking at the Verfremdungseffekt, otherwise known as the V-Effect, which focuses on distancing the audience from the characters and story to avoid them forming any emotional attachments and instead helping them to focus on the topics being discussed. The topics included in 'The Most Horrific' are pinnacle to the play so we felt we needed to distance the audience by exaggerating the physicality and voices of both the As&Bs and Cs&Ds. Everything had to be performed at a level 7, which meant for me, as well as the other A&Bs, level 1 was interested and 10 was disinterested. Therefore level 7 we had to behave rather blasé so we showed this through exaggerated slouched or hunched positions and very relaxed voices. However it was difficult to maintain because by pretending to be bored it is incredibly easy to actually become bored and consequently lose focus, draining energy from the piece and sometimes causing actors to miss cues.
I felt as though in both performances though, we did manage to keep a focus, especially bouncing off the energy and reactions our first audience gave us. Whether their lively reaction could be blamed on the fact that they're our classmates and found it amusing that half our class was lounging about performing with terribly exaggerated snobbish accents, I'd say it definitely boosted our confidence to perform later.
This distancing was also helped as no characters had names, so they were therefore unable to connect with the characters and could then become emotionally detached as they were un-relatable, allowing spectators to have sole focus on the topics.
There were also moments of gestus as we presented the relationship between the two groups through their contrasting behaviours performed by the actors. A&Bs lazy posture compared to the C&Ds upright more lively movement meant that there was a clear contrast between the two and whereas levels are often used to symbolise status, with those higher seeming to have more power, we flipped this on its head having the superior A&Bs sitting.
I thought Rhianne performed really well in both productions, making sure she kept up her energy, portraying her role at a clear level 7 throughout. I also felt she did this consistently, not once disengaging from the action going on around her. However I did feel as though her high energy led to her words running a little too fast, causing some lines to become mumbled and the diction dropping. Therefore those who didn't know the play might not have heard or understood what was being said, although for most of her lines she managed to avoid it, mainly getting to excited whilst saying the lines about the Ugandan lesbian at Yarlswood.
